The timelines and universes for “X-Men” are far from straightforward, but in short Fox owned the rights to X-Men, including Deadpool. As a result all of the X-Men films exist outside of the MCU.
As a similar example, Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man. As a result Tobey Maguire & Andrew Garfield Spider-Men exist outside of the MCU. (Ignoring for a moment that the MCU didn’t even exist when some of those films came out.)
However when it came time for Tom Holland Spider-Man, Sony & Disney made a deal and that Spider-Man is part of the MCU. Eventually this gave us a Spider-Man film with multiverses, and all three Spider-Men appearing in an MCU film.
The new Deadpool is going to do the same. Deadpool will deal with multiverses and this time pull from the Fox “X-Men” universes, making them MCU characters. No deal with Fox is needed since Disney acquired Fox a few years ago.
So the old films aren’t technically MCU films, but they may have characters who will later appear in the MCU. But also these characters might be slightly different because multiverses.
The timelines and universes for “X-Men” are far from straightforward, but in short Fox owned the rights to X-Men, including Deadpool. As a result all of the X-Men films exist outside of the MCU.
As a similar example, Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man. As a result Tobey Maguire & Andrew Garfield Spider-Men exist outside of the MCU. (Ignoring for a moment that the MCU didn’t even exist when some of those films came out.)
However when it came time for Tom Holland Spider-Man, Sony & Disney made a deal and that Spider-Man is part of the MCU. Eventually this gave us a Spider-Man film with multiverses, and all three Spider-Men appearing in an MCU film.
The new Deadpool is going to do the same. Deadpool will deal with multiverses and this time pull from the Fox “X-Men” universes, making them MCU characters. No deal with Fox is needed since Disney acquired Fox a few years ago.
So the old films aren’t technically MCU films, but they may have characters who will later appear in the MCU. But also these characters might be slightly different because multiverses.
Thanks for catching me up!